The following situation arose Saturday when my Nurgle Chaos army faced off against a High Elf army:

The High Elf player has a bolt thrower. It’s maximum range is 48″. If it fires at a target more than 24″ away, does it suffer a -1 penalty to hit due to long range?

Both my opponent and I haven’t played in many months (probably closer to two years), so we were a bit fuzzy on the rules. Some of the simple things, like the situation above, puzzled us – and we either asked for help or resolved to look it up later.

In this case, someone told us that it did not suffer from a long range penalty. I wasn’t so sure, though, so we accepted that ruling for the moment and I decided to look it up when I had some more time to peruse the rulebook.

Do Bolt Throwers Suffer a -1 Penalty to Hit from Long Range?

 Yes, they do.

According to the rulebook, some war machines (presumably including Bolt Throwers) operate just like regular shooting. Specifically, it states that the only way Bolt Throwers are special is that they don’t suffer a move-and-shoot penalty if they pivot in place.

Otherwise, the usual negative/positive modifiers should be applied as per the chart in the Shooting section.

Relevant quotes, from the large hardcover rulebook:

“For now it is enough to know that some war machines are fired like normal missile weapons and so make use of the crew’s Ballistic Skill…”  (p85, “Shooting”)

“To determine whether the bolt is on target, roll to hit using the crew’s BS in the same way as bow shots, crossbows, and other missile weapons. The usual modifiers apply, except no penalty is imposed for turning the machine, as it is designed to be used in this way.” (p90, “Firing a Bolt Thrower”)

Unless there is a special rule in the specific Bolt Thrower’s army list, the general rule is that a Bolt Thrower’s shot is most definitely affected by long range. If the target is more than 24″ from the Bolt Thrower, the crew will suffer a -1 penalty to hit.

In this case, I don’t believe there is any such rule in the High Elf book – so next time I’ll know that the Bolt Thrower’s shooting should be penalized. It could mean the difference between a hit or a miss – a big difference when you’re talking about a bolt that will likely pierce two or three ranks of Chaos Warriors.